


In the darkness with you

by boxofwonder



Series: I took the stars from our eyes / And then I made a map [1]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Engine Room, M/M, Reincarnation AU, Spoilers, and stab it directly into your own heart, sometimes you gotta pick up a rusty knife called writing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-06-13 05:15:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15357060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boxofwonder/pseuds/boxofwonder
Summary: “It’s okay,” Akira breathed, his body aching with tension from how he had angled it protectively, as if that still mattered, when Goro’s blood was soaking them both. “It’s going to be okay.”





	In the darkness with you

Goro’s hair was as soft as it looked, even slick with sweat. 

“It’s okay,” Akira breathed, his body aching with tension from how he had angled it protectively, as if that still mattered, when Goro’s blood was soaking them both. “It’s going to be okay.”

“Liar,” Goro breathed, and coughed, and Akira tensed as he was forced to listen to the pain that motion put Goro through. All he could do was steady him, hold onto him. 

Akira was dizzy from all the energy he had put into trying to heal Goro, over and over, calling every persona available to him. He had shouted at his team like a madman for them to help him, and they had, they  _ had  _ even though their leader was losing his mind cradling his own murderer.

But the effort had been useless.

There were damages not even the metaverse could undo. 

Akira feared it was Goro’s own perception that made this endeavour so useless. That he considered himself so beyond salvation that nothing in this world could close that wound, no matter what Akira would have done for it to - 

“Stay with me,” he grit out, trying to issue it as a command, but his voice shook too much to mask that like a fool, Akira was begging. As if it’d change a thing. 

“A-kira -” Goro took a rattling breath. 

“Yes.” He just kept stroking Goro’s hair. “Yes.”

Those eyes had looked into his, cold and smooth like marbles, and pulled a trigger. 

Those eyes looked up at him now, glassy and feverish and showing him every truth Goro had hidden. Every inch of pain and despair. 

Goro exhaled, breath rattling painfully, and Akira yearned to wipe the drizzle of blood from his lips, but he didn’t. He wouldn’t take advantage, and he was too afraid to mess up the last words Akechi Goro would ever say to him.

It didn’t feel real. None of this felt real. “Next -  _ time _ -” He coughed again, a high-pitched noise of pain slipping past his last defenses.

A broken noise crawled its way up Akira’s throat, but he bit it back. He bit his own tongue until he tasted blood. He soothed his fingers through Goro’s air and tried not to wonder if anyone had ever held him like this and meant it. 

“Find -  _ me - _ ” Every breath sounded more painful, Goro’s voice wavering. Losing strength with each syllable more. But he lifted his hand, and uncoordinated, tossed it against Akira’s chest as if in hope it would find its destination. Goro’s fingers curled weakly, and Akira grasped his hand so it wouldn’t slip away. 

Goro’s gloved hand, curled over Akira’s heart.

Squeezing, Akira forced his voice to remain steady even as his eyes stung. “I’ll find you,” he promised. “No matter what or when, I’ll -”

“Sooner,” Goro wheezed, his eyes boring into Akira with a desperate plea himself. 

_ Find me sooner. _

Akira squeezed his eyes shut and clung to Goro’s hand with as much might as he could muster without fearing to hurt him. He took a deep, ragged breath. “Yes,” he said, because what else could he say? “I’ll find you. I’ll find you, again, and again, I’ll find you -” He opened his eyes again, and vowed: “I won’t be too late ever again.”

But he was. 

Even in his promise, he was too late, because the light had vanished from Goro’s eyes. Akira held onto his hand, and there was nothing left there. Only a body, still warm. 

_ Find me sooner.  _

Akira didn’t know what to do. He just sat there, numb, holding on and on. His hand still drew small patterns into Goro’s soft hair. 

“I promise,” he whispered, even though every word felt like shards dragged from his throat. “I promise, I promise, I promise.”

**Author's Note:**

> You'd think I could have just made a short story collection for my akeshus but nooooo, had to tie it together as a reincarnation AU, and write this opening sequence for it to make sense, and made myself cry.   
> Writers are all fucking masochists. And so are y'all readers. [HSM's we're all in this together starts playing but I'm also still crying]


End file.
